dovecot - Nov 2007 - migrating from mbox to maildir

Hi all,
I have a locking problem in a Centos 4.4 linux machine with the
following config:
dovecot-0.99.11-8.EL4
postfix-2.2.10-1.1.el4

I use virtual mailboxes with postfix

currently I have dovecot with mbox as this:
default_mail_env = mbox:/var/mail/virtualmail/%d/%n

The problem is that mail is being delivered to mailboxes very very
slowly (sometimes up to 4 hours). In my logs, I have tons of these
messages:

mail postfix/virtual[24965]: CFB8878D04F: to=<REMOVED at REMOVED>,
relay=virtual, delay=51, status=deferred (mailbox
/var/spool/mail/virtualmail/REMOVEDDOMAINNAME/npitti: unable to lock
for exclusive access: Resource temporarily unavailable)

then someone told me that I need to change dovecot to maildir format.
Is there a reference to change format?
Or some comments about this?

Thanks in advance.

I can not help with the error, but can tell you there is a few  
conversion tools for mbox to maildir format. Have a search on google.

Mark.


On 23 Nov 2007, at 18:53, "Erick Perez" <eaperezh at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi all,
> I have a locking problem in a Centos 4.4 linux machine with the
> following config:
> dovecot-0.99.11-8.EL4
> postfix-2.2.10-1.1.el4
>
> I use virtual mailboxes with postfix
>
> currently I have dovecot with mbox as this:
> default_mail_env = mbox:/var/mail/virtualmail/%d/%n
>
> The problem is that mail is being delivered to mailboxes very very
> slowly (sometimes up to 4 hours). In my logs, I have tons of these
> messages:
>
> mail postfix/virtual[24965]: CFB8878D04F: to=<REMOVED at REMOVED>,
> relay=virtual, delay=51, status=deferred (mailbox
> /var/spool/mail/virtualmail/REMOVEDDOMAINNAME/npitti: unable to lock
> for exclusive access: Resource temporarily unavailable)
>
> then someone told me that I need to change dovecot to maildir format.
> Is there a reference to change format?
> Or some comments about this?
>
> Thanks in advance.

On Friday, November 23 at 01:53 PM, quoth Erick Perez:
>Hi all,
>I have a locking problem in a Centos 4.4 linux machine with the
>following config:
>dovecot-0.99.11-8.EL4
The problem is quite likely one that was fixed in more recent versions 
of dovecot. Versions 0.99.x are extremely old (to the point of nearly 
being an entirely different product from Dovecot 1.0).
>then someone told me that I need to change dovecot to maildir format.
>Is there a reference to change format?
>Or some comments about this?
Dovecot 0.99.x's Maildir support may have been better than its mbox 
support, but that's a bad reason to convert all your mail storage. If 
you update your Dovecot to a non-antique version, chances are you'll 
fix your problem with much less effort.

If for some reason you are completely stuck with 0.99.x, then yes, 
changing to Maildir format is pretty easy, and there are plenty of 
conversion scripts out there in the world. Just ask Google. Keep in 
mind if the real problem is some bug in Centos that prevents Dovecot 
from using locks, then the Maildir conversion may not help much, 
because Maildir (in Dovecot) uses locks as well.

~Kyle
-- 
Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally 
to make moral decisions. "He must not be forced to act contrary to his 
conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his 
conscience, especially in religious matters."
                                            -- Catholic Catechism 1782
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Kyle Wheeler wrote:
> On Friday, November 23 at 01:53 PM, quoth Erick Perez:
>> Hi all,
>> I have a locking problem in a Centos 4.4 linux machine with the
>> following config:
>> dovecot-0.99.11-8.EL4
> 
> The problem is quite likely one that was fixed in more recent versions
> of dovecot. Versions 0.99.x are extremely old (to the point of nearly
> being an entirely different product from Dovecot 1.0).
> 
>> then someone told me that I need to change dovecot to maildir format.
>> Is there a reference to change format?
>> Or some comments about this?
> 
> Dovecot 0.99.x's Maildir support may have been better than its mbox
> support, but that's a bad reason to convert all your mail storage. If
> you update your Dovecot to a non-antique version, chances are you'll
fix
> your problem with much less effort.
> 
> If for some reason you are completely stuck with 0.99.x, then yes,
> changing to Maildir format is pretty easy, and there are plenty of
> conversion scripts out there in the world. Just ask Google. Keep in mind
> if the real problem is some bug in Centos that prevents Dovecot from
> using locks, then the Maildir conversion may not help much, because
> Maildir (in Dovecot) uses locks as well.
why lock?

anyway, the problem should be solved because postfix won't need to lock
the file.